Avoid HTTP Error while uploading images in WordPress

HTTP error is a very common problem in WordPress. This mostly occurs when you try to upload a really big image or video to the WordPress media library. In most cases this happens when the image size is too big. In some cases this happens when the image size exceeds 1 MB. So the best option would be to reduce the image file size, below 500 KB is best for both uploading the image and maintaining a decent website load time. In this blog I am going to show you two easy methods with which you can easily reduce the image file size.

Two reasons why the file size of the image is too big.

The image dimensions are too big: nowadays everyone has a smartphone with a camera which takes extremely high resolution images. Smartphones usually comes with a minimum 16 Megapixel camera, which will make the image file size around 3-4 megabytes. This is huge  when considering the standards of the web, so you must edit  those raw images properly to reduce their size before uploading it. Otherwise, the load time of your website will be very high and you will have a high bounce rate. Another reason why the image file size might be huge because because you might download high quality Stock images. That is fine, but you must edit those images too before uploading!

The image is in PNG format: I am not going to say what PNG stands for, because that is not necessary here. Simply to say, PNG is an image format, another one is JPG or JPEG. PNG is the uncompressed version of the image and in most cases have a very high file size. On the other hand JPG or JPEG is the compressed version and have a considerably low file size compared to  PNG. PNG is only required for images with transparent background such as logos, objects etc. 

So how to reduce the image size? Firstly reduce image dimensions. Secondly convert the image to JPG if it is in PNG format. I am going to show, how to do these two things easily using a free online photo editor called PXLR.com 

Setting Up PXLR.com, the free image editor

PXLR is a free online photo editor, please click here to go to pxlr.com. After you go their simply click on the button “CONTINUE WITH PXLR EDITOR”. Before that, make sure that you have enabled flash in your browser, or allow Flash when the browser asks, otherwise it will not work. Have a look at the screenshot below.

After you have set that up, you should be presented with a screen like below as shown in the screen shot. The photo editor looks very similar to Photoshop. But don’t worry, you would only need to learn a few simple steps to reduce the image file size. I going to shot how. 

Uploading the image

The image which I am going to edit has a dimension of 1416 px wide and 939 px high. The file size of the image is 3.15 megabyte. It is in PNG format.

To upload the image, simply click on “File” in the top left corner. Then from the drop down, click on “Open Image”. Then simply upload the image from your local computer.

Adjusting the image dimensions

I have realized that I have a content width in my WordPress site is about 700-800 px. So it is absolutely unnecessary for me to have an image width of about 1400 px. So I am going to reduce the width of the image to 800 px.

Click or hover on “Image” and then click on “Image Size” as shown in the screenshot below.

Then a simple dialogue box will appear. Then simply type in your new width, the height will adjust proportionately. Just make sure that the “Constrain Proportion” is marked.

Save the Image as JPG

Firstly, hover/click on “File” and then click on “Save”

Then a simple dialogue box would popup, then simply choose the option “JPEG” as marked in the screenshot. 

Results

The size of my image decreased from 3.15 megabytes to only 154 Kilobytes! That is about 95% reduction in file size! Now there is no chance in hell that I will have an HTTP error while uploading this image to the WordPress media library. But if you still have an HTTP error, then you might do two things. Number one, check whether your internet connection is working. Number two, trying renaming the image with something simple.

I hope this blog helped you out, please keep visiting this site for more useful contents.